Breaking the 'kid with a gun' cycle in Philly

Some on the streets are working to break the so-called 'generational curse' which leads youth into violent patterns, incarceration cycles

By Barbara Laker
The Philadelphia Inquirer

PHILADELPHIA — Michael Lockhart was 12 years old when he stood stoically over the open gray coffin. He looked down at the body of his father, his namesake, known on the streets of West Philadelphia as MG, for "Major Gangsta," and wondered why he looked nothing like the man he knew. MG had been shot 22 times with an AK-47.

Everyone fell silent in the funeral home as Michael, his voice quivering, read a poem he had written for his dad: